Published: Aug. 23, 2014
New era underway
West holds off KML to win season’s first game
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
West Bend West’s Patrick Baumann got about two hours of
sleep Thursday night. He was that excited to get the 2014 high school football
season underway.
So was the rest of his team as it began a new era under
first-year coach Jeff Richardson.
Baumann rushed for 197 yards on 22 carries and scored West’s
only two touchdowns to lead the Spartans to a hard-fought 15-8 victory Friday
over upset-minded Kettle Moraine Lutheran.
“It’s a great start to the era,” Baumann said.
Afterward, Richardson joked he was going to retire with a
1-0 record. He quickly said he will coach Week 2 on Thursday against Two Rivers
and the rest of the season for that matter.
“It feels good,” Richardson said of the 1-0 start. “I told
the kids we’ll smile back on this at the end of the year. We’re getting ready
for Week 2.”
A victory in Week 1 is something that has been hit or miss
for West. With the victory, the Spartans are 3-3 in their last six Week-1
games.
With a new era underway, the Spartans, including Baumann
wanted to shed its reputation of being slow starters and come out with a Week-1
victory.
West has been above .500 going into Wisconsin Little Ten
Conference play only twice since 2006.
So far so good for the Spartans.
“I feel like this is a great start to try and get a new norm
for this program,” Baumann said. For Baumann, it was an up-and-down evening.
Yes, he ran for nearly 200 yards and scored the two
touchdowns, one from 24 yards and another from 12.
However, he also lost two fumbles. “I kind of played bad
with all the fumbling and stuff,” Baumann said. “But my offensive line helped
me.”
Baumann said the offensive line went through a shift in
personnel this week and credited the unit for a job well done in a short amount
of time.
“Our offensive line played great,” Baumann said. “I’m just
running behind great guys.”
Thankfully, neither fumble hurt the Spartans. But that
didn’t make the feeling in Baumann’s stomach a soothing one.
The coaching staff and Baumann’s teammates didn’t quit on
him so he knew he couldn’t quit on them.
“It felt great at the great moments,” Baumann said when
asked to sum up his evening. “But when the bad moments came, I knew I had to
keep my head up because that’s been my problem the last two years.
“I end up getting super down and playing terrible when I get
down and I just tried to keep my head up.”
Baumann continued to play aggressive, dropping the shoulder
into would-be tacklers seeking the extra couple yards.
“We’ve got to stick with him. He’s a player,” Richardson
said. “Mistakes happen; you’ve got to leave them behind. That’s kind of the
idea we go with.
“I knew he was going to step up when he needed to.”
That confidence was big for the senior.
“It’s everything,” Baumann said.
“I’m just glad we won,” he added. On the other sideline, KML
certainly had its chances to steal this one from West.
Twice in the first quarter, the Chargers were first-and-goal
to go but had no points to show for it.
Also in the first quarter, KML got inside West’s 10-yard
line, but came up with no points.
The Chargers were 0-for-4 in the red zone.
“I thought our defense stepped up and made plays,”
Richardson said.
KML also had a 15-play drive that chewed up 9:29 off the
game clock and came away with no points.
And at the end of the fourth quarter, with 1:16 left in the
game, trailing by one touchdown and with no timeouts, the Chargers pushed the
ball down the field, but to only see the game end with an interception by
Anthony Schlass.
“We didn’t finish,” KML coach Mark Heckendorf said. “We left
a lot of points out there on the field.”
West got on the board first with a 24-yard touchdown run by
Baumann with 11:01 left in the second quarter. The extra-point kick attempt
went off the right upright.
West stretched the lead to 13-0 with 7:43 left in the half
with another run by Baumann.
KML drew to within a touchdown, with a 23-yard pass by Jared
Henning to Zach Nelsen with 1:57 left in the first half.
After a West possession, KML got the ball back with 43
seconds left in the half inside its own 20-yard line.
Trying to avoid a sack, Henning lost the handle on the ball
and it trickled into the end zone. A KML player recovered the ball, giving West
two points for the safety.
KML dominated possession, but didn’t have much to show for
it, which left a disappointing taste in Heckendorf’s mouth afterward.
“We learned a lot about ourselves,” he said.
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